


a question of logic

by hulklinging



Category: New X-Men: Academy X, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Future Fic, Getting Back Together, M/M, Morality, dinner date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-07
Updated: 2016-09-07
Packaged: 2018-08-13 12:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7976671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hulklinging/pseuds/hulklinging
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>David helps Tommy get out of a sticky situation. Tommy thinks he might have rather stayed there than have to have this conversation with his ex.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a question of logic

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt "But did you do it?" for thinkfast.

David pointedly doesn't ask.

In fact, he Does Not Ask, yes it warrants capitals. Tommy can feel his curiosity, knows the boy well enough to know when he's biting his tongue. Tommy wishes he would just ask, get it over with. Because maybe David still trusts him, in some weird way that starts with rerouting your whole life to save a guy, but the man loves his logic, loves to understand.

Right from the beginning, David always eyed him like a code he had to crack.

Tommy should mind, probably, but somewhere along the line he'd equated 'solving' with 'leaving' and, well.

Tommy's made a promise to himself that if anyone's doing the leaving 'round here, it's him. And he's been doing a pretty good job of it, so far.

David takes him home to his shitty little apartment without bothering to check if Tommy is already staying somewhere. It grates at him. He's not some helpless child. He's not homeless. David doesn't have to parent him.

With this in mind, Tommy insists on making dinner. David raises an eyebrow, but doesn't protest. He knows Tommy well enough to know how much he hates cooking, real cooking with nothing instant or pre-made. It's something he can't do anything about, the time it takes for water to boil.

Well, David had wanted to experiment with that. Wanted to see if Tommy could stop before the explosion, could heat something up without it all blowing up in his face, basically.

Hilarious in hindsight. They never got around to testing it, unless you count whatever their relationship had been until it suddenly wasn't.

So Tommy grits his teeth and makes dinner, because he won't give David the satisfaction of knowing him. That's all in the past.

He makes noodles because for a genius David has a surprising lack of food in his cupboards. Or he hid all the rest in some sick joke, wanting to reenact the first time they sat and ate together.

This whole day is starting to feel like some sick joke.

David waits until they're sitting at the table before he asks the question Tommy's been expecting this whole time.

"But did you do it?"

Tommy has just taken a huge bit and he purposefully chews slower, just to make David wait.

"I'm impressed with your self control on that one, Alleyne. You almost waited until dessert to ask me if I'm a murderer."

"Aren't you always impressed by my self control?"

The comment would be cutting, if it was anything new. Tommy grins without humour at the man across from him.

"Don't worry, David. You haven't sullied your good name by shacking up with me."

David sighs. He looks tired. Exhausted, even. Tommy pointedly does not wonder about whether he's been sleeping enough.

"Tommy, that is not the point."

"Could have fooled me. Practically giving me the silent treatment all day-"

"I thought you might be tired-"

"Watching me like I'm about to snap and kill your neighbours or something-"

"You look like hell, I'm just concerned-"

"And hiding me in here because you don't want the world knowing you were once sleeping with some psycho."

David's clenched fist slams on the table. Both of them flinch, and David looks down.

"Do you really think I care either way?"

Tommy opens his mouth but David's hand comes up.

"Please let me speak."

Even after all this time, David so rarely has ever asked him for anything. Tommy shuts up.

"I asked because I wanted to know. Not to pass some kind of judgement on you. Because if you did do it, something bad must have happened to make you, and I wanted to make sure you were okay. As a friend. Because it might come as a surprise to you, Tommy Shepherd, but some people do care about you!"

Tommy scoffs. He can't help himself. "You can't honestly expect me to believe that your opinion of me wouldn't have changed if I'd murdered some people."

David looks back up, and his gaze is pure iron. "I think you're forgetting that I don't come from some Avengers legacy. Do you know how many of my classmates had blood on their hands? My roommate came to us straight out of Friends of Humanity. And none of us that are still alive can throw stones. We've all had to fight to make it through."

There's more raw emotion in David's tone than Tommy's heard in years. Probably since their breakup. David stopped caring about him enough to yell, Tommy had thought, and he'd matched him. Distance for distance. Now they're so close, barely a breath between them, and David's proverbial guts are leaking out onto the table

Tommy can't handle it.

"Okay. I get it. 'Some of my best friends are murderers.' Can we go back to eating in silence, now?"

"Look, I'm not-" It's strange, watching him struggle for words. "Did I ever tell you about when I wanted to try to make it so I could hold on to everything I learned from people?"

This is new. David doesn't talk about MDay, who and what he lost then. Even though he got back some semblance of his powers, he doesn't talk about what they used to be. Not ever.

"No, can't say that rings a bell."

"It was back before things got real bad. When we had enough students to have little teams, and enough free time to compete against each other, too." There's a dry note in his voice, laughing at how simple it all used to be, maybe. "And we all had a teacher sponsor too. Dani Moonstar was ours. Makes sense, since the reason most of us were even there was because of her. Most of the team's gone now. But for a while, it was... I mean, we fought and argued, but we were like a family, for a while."

This definitely does not bring to mind anything for Tommy. Not the unanswered texts on his phone, or how Billy keeps calling.

"So, when I started looking into getting rid of the blocks in my mind, Dani was worried. She thought they were there for a reason. So she... She showed me what might happen. It felt real. I thought it was real." David pulls in on himself. Tommy doesn't think he's ever seen him look so small. "It didn't take long for me to get cold. To start using logic to justify a casualty or two. By the end, I was prepared to wipe a whole country out of existence. In the name of 'world peace.' Everyone under my control. And when my old teammates came to stop it, I killed them. No hesitation. My girlfriend-" Was that a voice break? "-who was my wife, by then, she blew herself up to finally finish the job."

He takes a moment to breathe, and Tommy doesn't remember deciding to reach out, but he's got David's hand in his just the same.

"That... That's fucked up. But we all have nightmares, man. Intrusive thoughts." Never let it be said he didn't learn anything from his time with the Kaplans. "None of that was really you."

"It was, though. I catch myself weighing lives all the time. It's something I could be."

Early on in their friendship one of their teammates had called David cold. Tommy hadn't understood it. This was the boy who joined up with a bunch of strangers to jump through dimensions trying to save someone he barely knew. He's reserved, maybe, but not cold. Looking at the man across from him, he knows this is something that's only grown with age. David cares deeply about a great many things.

Tommy used to be one of them. In this conversation, he sees that maybe he could be one again.

He wants it more than he thought he would.

"But it's not what you are."

"Not right now, no. It's something I think about a lot, though. The point is, you're not the only one with the potential to be the bad guy."

He should already know that, thinks about Billy's power and Teddy's lineage and Jonas's programming. But it was different, David is right. No one who knows Teddy expects him to be anything but good. Anyone who's met Billy knows if anything dark ever comes from him it will be in spite of his best efforts, not because of them.

People don't ever think the best of Tommy Shepherd.

Of of the X-Men, he supposes.

"So what now?"

David stands. "I think I have some ice cream, if you want dessert."

Tommy watches him go to the fridge, and suddenly this ache he's gotten used to ignoring is too much. He misses him. He misses this being their normal. He misses being around someone he can actually finish a conversation with without wanting to vibrate out of his skin.

"I didn't do it," he blurts out. "I didn't kill those guys, but I kind of wish I did."

David turns to look back at him, and some of the darkness that tends to descend on him whenever the X-Men come up has lifted, a little.

"That's okay."

"Is it, though?"

David brings over two bowls of ice cream. It's Tommy's favourite flavour, and he can't decide what would make him happier - if David bought it just for him, or if that's what he buys out of habit, still. Tommy kicks his leg under the table, an unspoken thanks.

"You're not a villain, Tommy. Even when you might want to do things that seem villainous. It's always coming from a place of wanting to protect someone or something. I think that's important."

How could he have forgotten this? The way that David believes in him so strongly, in spite of everything.

There's a thousand things he needs to say to David. Too many to know where to start. But... they have time, don't they? They're both still here. They have the time to try again.

"Can I stay here a while?" he finds himself asking.

David smiles.


End file.
